The Daily Discourse

Guest: Mandla Mbusi, SABC Northern Cape and Free State Regional Manager Usually this time of the year the focus is all on education and today we are coming to you live from Galeshewe in Kimberley. This is because the SABC is fulfilling a request by the principal of Tetlanyo Secondary School. He requested laptops as he says that out of the 30 computers they have, only 14 are functional. In an age o...

Today we visit the Makana Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape internationally famous for the National Arts Festival. It's also where Rhodes University is situated. They have been having a lot of problems especially around water. The town’s mayor blames the problems on old infrastructure and appealed for patience from residents who have been complaining that water shortages are just too mu...

As we round off the first month of 2025, numerous international headlines that has changed how we look at geo-politics: from the South Korean president getting indicted after trying to enforce Marshall law; the inauguration of the US President Trump; the fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire; the Ukrainian-Russian conflict; South Africa's first month in charge of the G20 and ongoing conflicts in the DRC...

The past week has seen major changes in international grant funding, especially in the public health sector. US President Donald Trump has a signed an executive order that has halted their existing and new foreign aid projects over the next 90 days around the world. President Trump has also signed an executive order to withdraw from the World Health Organization in the next 12 months. The US is th...

Guest: Prof. Sizwe Mabizela - Vice Chancellor of Rhodes University As universities gear up to open their doors to students (new and returning), many families are grappling with a critical question: how will they finance university studies? In addition to this, there are challenges around adequate student accommodation, the decline in NSFAS-supported students and university debt leading to financia...

About two weeks ago on the 14th of January we received a call from Tshepo in Dinokana. He was complaining about the public bus service in his area having been suspended which led to commuters being stranded as it's the only mode of transport taking people to work. Let's take a listen to what he had to say Guest :  Dr Hans Kekana - Head of Department in the Department of Community Safety and T...

Guest: Bryan Hirsch, Chairperson of Bryan Hirsch, Colley & Associates (Pty) Limited  Today being the last Tuesday of the month, Bryan deals with all the questions sent to him of a similar nature. But he will still answer any financial question you may have. He now joins us to deal with your questions…      

Last week, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has ruled that the 2023 regulations governing the R370 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant are unconstitutional and invalid. The ruling dismantles several restrictive measures imposed by the South African Social Security Agency, which limited access to the grant for many eligible South Africans. In simple terms, the c...

Guest: Frans Baleni - Former mineworker, unionist and Former NUM General Secretary Guest: Peter Major - Director of Mining - Modern Corporate Solutions (He’s very good with Mining economics,  operations and so on for many years Mineral and Petroleum Resources minister, Gwede Mantashe says that illegal mining is a war on the economy. He was speaking during a media briefing in Pretoria, o...

Our next guest is a seasoned artist, composer and producer. She has worked with various artists in the South African industry. Born in Cape Town , her career started at the age of nine when she starred in the Wizard of Oz production at the Baxter theater in Cape Town. In 2002, she wrote a theme song for Vuka Africa Foundation, a foundation foundered by Dr Linda Gobodo. This song was the beginning...

 As Tertiary institutions are about to start the 2025 academic year, the Private Student Housing Association is pleading with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme to pay the outstanding rental fees to avoid any disruption that could occur. They warn that if the amounts are not paid, many students who live in accommodation that still owes rent will not be allowed to return until the amoun...

Many times when communities feel badly done by municipalities, the first thing they do is stop paying for services. Sometimes it is the ratepayers associations who call on their fellow residents to withhold their rates and taxes. In light of this, we invited the South African Local Government Association to talk about the impact this is having on the everyday running of municipalities. We also wan...

As world leaders meet in Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum under the theme: 'Collaboration for the Intelligent Age, we turn our attention on the future of energy and technology in Africa. In forums of this nature, Africa and South Africa as a country become a focal point meaning we need to position ourselves as power houses on issues of renewable energy and technological adv...

Guest: Nomthandazo Mpande - Managing Director at Phoki Holdings Guest: Princess Mthonbeni - Nuclear expert – Founder of Africa4Nuclear Guest: Bertha Dlamini - Founding President of the African Women in Energy and Power Let's tell you now about a great opportunity for for women, youth and people living with disability. It is called the Just Energy Transition Skills Deve...

Guest (Telephone): Dr. Shaheeda Omar - Executive Director of the TeddyBear Clinic Guest (Telephone): Christelle van der Merwe - Senior Director Customer Operations at Mimecast Guest: Phakamile Khumalo - Programme Manager: Public and Media Skills Development at Media Monitoring Africa #CitizensCorner: Digital safety of children online Focus: This time of year, often sees parents are shari...

The Eastern Cape came out at position eight for the 2024 matric results. They achieved 84,9% something MEC Fundile Gade was happy with. He commended the teachers and unions for a job well done. So in this hour we turn our focus to the province to find out what some of the challenges are and what they are planning to do to improve the result and make it to the top. To discuss this further, we are j...

As we are still in the period of education where also parents are registering their children to tertiary institutions, Bryan received some information from Standard Bank on how to prepare a student loan application and the rising demand. He now joins us on the line to talk about whether going through the back for a student loan is a good option… Guest: Bryan Hirsch, Chairperson of Bryan Hir...

Keeping on the theme of education, we turn our attention on bogus colleges and what it is that the public should know when registering? Last year Educor-owned colleges were deregistered for non-compliance which left some students stranded and having to start afresh with other institutions. Then there are those ones that are not registered. As the year starts, the Department of Higher Education is...

The Judicial Conduct Tribunal’s hearings into the sexual harassment case against Judge President Selby Mbenenge has  brought the issue back onto the public domain. Some of the things that came out so far a very shocking and explicit. Of course the problem of sexual harassment has come a long way with some women too afraid to report the perpetrator. Let's take a listen to the voices of s...

Our guest today is described not just as a jazz musician, trombonist, pianist but a multi-instrumentalist. One wonders what else he can play? Malcolm Jiyani has a very touching story about how he discovered that he can play music instruments and also how he fell in love them from a very humbling set-up after dropping out of achool at grade 5.  Guest:   Malcolm Jiyani - Jazz musician, tro...

Zwe li Bashman is MD of MSD Sub-Saharan Africa and he wrote an opinion piece calling for open minds to unlock the deadlock on the NHI. The process leading to the the president finally signing it into law has been very shaky as it became a hot political debate with court action, on the other hand pharmaceutical companies raised concerns of possible financial losses. Then there's the constitutional...

Usually around this time of the year we hear the same cries about student funding especially those whose parents can't afford, but also don't qualify for NSFAS. So many students and parents call into the show seeking other avenues to access funds for fees. Well this may be a thing of the past as universities are starting to come up with their own funding methods. Wits University’s SRC is int...

Ratepayers and business forums under The Ray Nkoyeni Municipality are very frustrated and wanting some type of compensation from thei municipality for the suffering they had to endure because of a strike that has affected service delivery for about two months. Recently they again grouped themselves to clean their town to avoid the stench coming from uncollected refuse that could become a health ha...

As much as the country is celebrating a high matric pass rate, two provinces that came last, the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape are still a concern. So we thought to speak to them in an effort to find out what happened and how they are hoping to turn things around. The Northern Cape came out last with a pass rate of 84.2%. So we start with them today to hear what their explanation is as we wel...

When it comes to the running of our schools we often hear about how teachers are doing, school governing bodies and their contribution to running the schools. But we hardly ever hear about those who either give their time to help kids cross the road, help with homework, coach sports teams or feed those who are hungry. For this hour we will be speaking to such people who give their time to uplift t...